Sunny with a chance of Climate Change
You can hear giggles coming from the shore before you even step foot onto the beach. It’s a sight all too familiar to anyone who’s grown up in Florida by the ocean, or made frequent trips with friends and family growing up. Although practically a year-round experience thanks to consistent sunshine, rising sea levels could make this experience look completely different in just a few years time.
Though a dramatic claim to some, Florida has not been immune to the increasing effects of climate change, which have resulted in increased storm activity, and rising sea levels.
According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment report put out in 2018, scientists have made it abundantly clear that climate change is not only real, but has and will continue to impact the lives of Americans across the country if no action is taken. The report specifically points out coastal states like Florida that have experienced infrastructural impacts of coastal flooding, as well as the larger impacts on the state and citizens with the threat of rising sea levels.
Four Twenty Seven, a climate intelligence firm based in California also produced a report in 2018 which highlights the impacts of climate change in the United States, specifically pointing out Florida as one of the few coastal states most vulnerable to coastal flooding with rising sea levels due to climate change.
Both reports have noted that without concrete action, Florida will experience both economic and public safety implications.
“This is a relatively new, but rapidly developing conversation [climate change] in the financial sector,” says Natalie Ambrosio, Editor at Four Twenty Seven.
As a major aspect of Florida’s economy relies on both beaches and the tourism it brings, investors are now expressing worry when it comes to the future of Florida’s popular coasts.
“Investors are beginning to ask questions about potential investments’ exposure to climate change risks, and the potential impacts of these risks,” says Ambrosio.
“If Florida doesn’t invest in [climate] resilience, it will increasingly be at risk from a diminishing tax base, as residents may no longer be able to afford the repeated [climate inflicted] damages to their livelihoods,” Ambrosio notes.
In understanding this, many have begun to question what the contributing factors to rising sea levels really are, and whether or not they can be contained.
According to Dr. Jayantha Obeysekera, Director of the Sea Level Solutions Center and Research Professor at Florida International University, rising sea levels are the result of many factors. However, thermal expansion—one of the larger contributing factors—is at the forefront of both climate change and rising sea level conversations.
“Now if you think of the ocean as a bathtub, the bathtub can expand due to heat, or additional water it receives,” says Obeysekera.
As thermal expansion is a result of increased greenhouse gases—glaciers, sea ice and ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica have begun to lose mass. This has resulted in an increased amount of water beginning to pour into the ocean, contributing to the rise of sea levels globally.
While Obeysekera acknowledges that there are also natural fluctuations which contribute to rising sea levels, he notes that greenhouse gasses—which manifest from things like emissions from transportation, electricity usage, and even plastic pollution—are definitely a contributing factor, and calls not only for the importance of recognizing the future impact of them, but also a move to reduce the usage of them.
“In the last 10 years, we’ve seen some uptake in the sea level rise rate,” says Obeysekera, noting that people should be aware that they will continue to see a rise.
“I think what people can do to help however is to be educated about it [rising sea levels], participate in climate change, and more importantly, try to adapt to the rising sea levels,” says Obeysekera.
Although it may be frightening to understand that rising sea levels are, and will continue to impact Florida, when it comes to education on climate change and where Florida stands, it’s no surprise that many citizens are actually unaware of the vulnerable state that Florida is in.
It was only exposed in 2015 by the Miami Herald that Gov. Rick Scott had banned the term climate change from being used within his administration.
Christopher Byrd, a former attorney with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of General Counsel also confirmed in an investigative report that was released that other terms including ‘sustainability’ as well as ‘global warming’ were not to be used as well.
With the banning of terms that aid in offering direct insight to climate change, it may be argued that members of the Republican party have failed to educate citizens on climate change.
Besides Gov. Scott, other members of the Republican party including Pres. Donald Trump, as well as Florida Gov. Elect Ron DeSantis have distanced themselves from the term. In fact, DeSantis claimed during a tour of the Everglades back in September that he wasn’t a climate change denier, but did not want to be labeled a climate change believer. His comments on his wavering stance on climate change were further confirmed during a CNN gubernatorial debate by Jake Tapper.
Due to the lack of acknowledgement from Republican leaders of the current environmental state Florida is in, in Apr. of 2018, University of Miami student Delaney Reynolds, along with a group of kids — the youngest being just 10-years-old — sued Gov. Rick Scott for failing to protect Florida citizens from the effects of climate change.
Those effects of climate change being, the algae bloom which has affected almost the entirety of the Florida Coast, increased levels of heat, and rising sea levels.
In return, the group wanted one thing: a climate protection plan.
An attempt was made to reach Reynolds, however in concerns to the lawsuit, there has yet to be an update.
More locally in Boca Raton, there was also a bid to enact a climate protection plan. During a city council meeting on May 23, 2017, the Boca Raton City Council passed a resolution that would adopt a climate action pledge, and on Sept. 12, 2018, the Boca Raton City Council passed a resolution urging Congress to take action on climate change.
Within the resolution, major emphasis was placed on policies and programs focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions — the largest contributor to climate change.
While the City of Boca Raton stated that they would, “consider integrating the Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) framework in whole or in part as appropriate into existing and future sustainability action plans….where and when appropriate and financially feasible,” there’s yet to be an update on an actual enforced climate plan.
Without a climate protection plan, states like Florida will begin to see property values decline and home ownership costs increase—as Four Twenty Seven has reported—as well as increased flooding, as sea levels are expected to rise one to two feet by 2050.
In an effort to become educated and aid in reducing greenhouse gases locally, there is a seemingly small but surprising activity people can participate in right now.
Plastic pollution on local beaches across Florida has been a consistent issue, and a study from the University of Hawaii showed that plastic releases greenhouse gases once submerged in the ocean, then exposed to the sun.
In an effort to reduce pollution, local residents can volunteer at organizations like Boca Save Our Beaches— a non-profit started by Jessica Gray, member of the Green Living Advisory Board (GLAB)in Boca Raton—which encourages citizens to work together to establish goals to safeguard the coast, while promoting a clean marine environment through beach cleanups and green activities.
“I’ll do a 20 minute presentation to a group of people, and then we’ll go out and do a beach cleanup,” says Gray.
“I think when people are more educated, they’ll live more environmentally friendly lives,” Gray notes.
Many of the people Gray will present to happen to be individuals who initially believe Florida beaches are in pristine condition, but then are shocked when they participate in a cleanup and discover the amount of debris — ranging from Starbucks straws, to foreign plastic littered across the beach.
While there are people like Gray and Obeysekera who recognize climate change and the impending impacts of it, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this issue will lie in the hands of young individuals like Reynolds, who recognize the dwindling amount of time left to do something.
“Climate change is a preventable problem,” says Lyric Haughton, a biology major at Florida Atlantic University.
At FAU, Haughton has studied the causes of climate change, and notes that her professors also make it a point to talk about it with students.
Haughton, like Reynolds, is also a young individual who cares about what the planet she lives on will look like in a few years time.
“Sweeping it under the rug by banning the term [climate change] and refusing to pass legislation in a place [Florida] that will deal with its repercussions the most is not only dismissive to the people of Florida, but also our ecosystem,” says Haughton.
“We learn in school that preventing detrimental issues historically means facing the facts and refusing to succumb to ignorance,” says Haughton,
“The same goes for climate change. Ignoring these problems means not only making the issue worse, but handing them off to future generations to handle when it just may be too late.”
While change will not happen overnight, citizen’s education on the current state of vulnerability Florida is in, as well as the changes that must be made is crucial to its future.
